Drifters

by Santos, J. A.

  “I’m not leaving Miss Sara alone.”

  Jeremy walked to Marino’s side and whispered something to his ear. “Fine,” he said and glared at Jeremy. “You get full responsibility of their outcome, understood,” and tapped Jeremy’s cheek with force that let him a red mark on it, he looked down with a sad face.

  As Jeremy nodded his head to Marino he let out a grunt and walked towards us as they took Alex and the cage away. Three men appeared behind the cage all bearing AR-15 semiautomatic assault rifles in hands and they stood at the edge of the hole where the seventeen were, they started shooting randomly at each one. Agonizing screams were herd as bullets tore through every muscle of their decaying bodies. I knew they did not feel a thing, but the image they were seeing as fellows around them dropped dead with their heads open. The screams were not of pain, but from the feeling of fear as their decrepit life’s ended, I knew some were glad of such suffering ending, others not so much. I could not bear witness to such event and I started walking away, Max at my side and the sound of the shoots echoing at my back. He holds my hand and squeezed a little I looked at him as tears started falling from my eyes. Even the dead have feelings, you know. I thought to myself as I put my hand to my silent heart and all I wanted at that time was to feel a beat, feel the pumping of blood in my veins as all living creatures have, and I did not. Max grabs my hand leading it to his heart, his was pumping. I felt glad for his kindness and knowing what I wanted. I just couldn’t help myself and gave him a hug.

  “Thanks.” I whispered to his left ear and gave him a peck on his cheek. He smiles.

  Chapter Twelve

  We three walked all the way back to the clearing, Max was still holding my hand and Jeremy was to my right, all three of us were in silence. The day had turn morning to afternoon. The sun was high to the west settling down to give way to the night. As soon as we hit the clearing I sat down next to where I had left the backpack.

  “What did you whispered to Marino?” I asked as soon as Max sat beside me putting his head on my lap and I caressed his dark mane. Jeremy stayed standing.

  “I told him I would look after you.”

  “There will be no need for that. Go back to your master like the dog you have become.” I said and looked down at Max. It was only a few minutes, but he had fallen asleep already. “I can take care of myself if you can remember.”

  He said nothing. Looking at me he runs his hands over his hair. “Listen Sara, you need to know…”

  “Stop, no need to say or explain, just simply go, leave us alone, if you feel that you can tell me tomorrow I will be at the same park. Now go.” I said and looked down at sleeping Max. His breathing nice and continues, right hand on his chest feeling the beat of his heart. My left on his hair making twirls of it and I never had felt so normal in my entire life, well as normal as one could be drifting from place to place.

  I started to hum and old song I had stuck in my mind for many years, never knowing the name of it or the words, just the humming of it. Jeremy had left, knowing that we would see him the next morning in the park I was always true to my word. I did wondered what he wanted to say.

  As the rest of the day went by with the only event of Max sleeping in my lap and me looking up to the sky as the last of the sun filtered through the leaves of the trees, the wind slowly blowing as the they danced to that magical sound of Maxes heartbeat. I was still humming my tune when Max opened his eyes as soon as the night took over.

  “Hello there Miss Sara,” he said looking up. And I looked down.

  “Hello there.” I said as our eyes met.

  “It has been a long day for us hasn’t it, Miss Sara?”

  “Yea,” I said looking up at the leaves swaying in the night’s wind, my hair flies all over my face as I heard someone stepping in the clearing. I pulled the hair from my face and looked at the man in front of us. It was a cop.

  “Hey,” he said almost screaming, “You, what are you doing here. Don’t you know there is mad man roaming the forest,” still almost a scream. Max stood up and the cop put a light to his face. Max squint his eyes as he raised one hand to his face to shield from it. I stood beside Max.

  “Sorry officer we were just resting here for a little while that is all.” He said

  “Wait a second, I remember that voice.” He said, “Take your hand off you face boy and no funny stuff.”

  Max did as told as the cop took out his gun. “You on the ground now, put your hands behind your back.” He screamed at Max, and he did. “You Miss, do to. No funny stuff.”

  I did as the cop asked me to do and we stayed there waiting. I looked at Max and he was smiling. I said nothing only nodded my head slightly, saying a big no. He just kept smiling. The cop walks closer to us.

  “I remember you; you were the driver of the yellow car, weren’t you? And you were at the back seat.” He said as he came closer to us with his gun drawn. He clicked a black box on his shoulder and spoke towards it. “This is Officer Jefferson; I have two of the suspects in custody in black wood, need immediate back up. He moved closer, Max still smiles; I nod again and mouthed the word. The cop had both eyes towards us slightly from the right as he still spoke. “I repeat; this is Officer Jefferson requesting immediate backup at black wood. Two suspects in custody.” He looked forward and the gun switched hands, from left to right as he unbuckled a pair of handcuffs and came closer to me. Max still smiles. I started to feel worried Max would do something stupid. I looked at him again, said no again then the cop grabbed my wrist twisting my hand to my lower back and clasping the cold metallic brace he had taken out, then the other hand.

  “Don’t you dare touch Miss Sara!” Max screams and lunges sideways baring his teeth targeting the cops neck. I stood as fast as possible with both hands tied to my back. Max mouth closed and I screamed; he missed his target as I pushed the cop out of the way. He falls flat on his back. Max opened his eyes as he felt my hair fall on to his face, the small threads caressing his cheeks. He opened his mouth again letting me go of his bite.

  “O, Miss Sara I’m so, so sorry, please would you forgive me?” he said as a sad look came to his eyes as my knees gave and I fell to his arms. He turned to the cop that was still at the floor and glared at him, he was clearly mad. He let go of me and started to get up growling, hissing, and bearing his teeth.

  “What are you people” said the cop. His voice cracks and stutters, his eyes wide as he sees the creature Max is, as his body moved backwards rustling the dead leaves under him.

  “Max don’t.” I screamed and he stopped and looked back. His face had changed I could see the start of the blackness in his eyes his nose prickled up and his cheeks puffed. He kept moving.

  “I can’t let you live after what you did to Miss Sara” he said

  “Max, listen to me Max. I am okay. Listen to my voice. Come back here baby.” I said in a tender voice as if a lover was asking to cuddle with his or her partner, something I had never done. He stopped cold and turned around slowly.

  “What did you just said?”

  “Come back her baby, you don’t need to do this. Leave the man alone.” He turns around completely as his eyes sadden.

  “You really mean it? I’m your lover.”

  “Yes baby, you are my lover please let him go.” I said as Max had his back to the cop I screamed, “What are you waiting for, a fucking invitation, get the fuck out of here.”

  “Well, my dear lovely Sara, then that, is worse.” He said as he turned around jumping over the cop. He rips the cop’s chest with his bare hands after biting his carotid artery and smashing his throat with his forearm so he could not scream, feasting on him. I was still on my knees as he feasted sadden buy the action he just has done, I closed my eyes. I hear the ripping sound of the flesh, the gurgling of Max drinking the man’s blood. I open my eyes and turned away. My stomach started churning the hunger calling.

  “Miss Sara, my dear lover?” Max asked.

  “Not anymore,” I said still not look
ing back.

  “But?”

  “Why did you not listen to me? Call me Sara from now on.” I looked back to see Max standing the pieces of the cops flesh on his shirt and blood dripping form his mouth and looking down.

  “I’m sorry to have disobeyed you, I mean, Miss Sara he hurt you and was taking us in.”

  “Yes and don’t you remember he called for backup? What are the others going to think when they see you like that?” I said and he looked at his blood soaked clothes, “There is no time to hide the body and you should do something before he comes back.”

  I see his shoulder start to moved upward and down. Then I heard watery sniffing and I knew he was crying.

  “Max, listen what is done is done. Now is not the time to stay here and weep. So get your act together and let’s move.” He started laughing, and I tilted my head left, confused.

  “Alex is going to be so proud of me.” He said as he looked forward and kept laughing like a hyena, menacing and deadly.

  “What do you mean?” I asked as he started walking back and forth ignoring whatever I said.

  “I can’t believe Alex’s plan worked so flawlessly.” He turned to me. “Miss Sara that was some grade ‘A’ acting for my part. I even got you convinced to call me baby as if you had fallen for me.” He laughed again.

  “Why would you do this?”

  “Ha, after he saw what you did in Canyon Diablo, we knew exactly who you were. Alex said that we had found the person responsible for the curse we both had and we could get our revenge.”

  “What did you saw there?”

  “The glorious beast you really are, the fire behind you, your red hair flying wildly as you came closer to your victim. It was as exhilarating as he pleaded for his life and the screams were a joyful sound as he was consumed by you.”

  “He was and evil man he deserved what he got, the cop had not hurt anybody.” I said

  “Aw, but her is why you are wrong Miss Sara, there are no good people in the world. Don’t you see we are superior creatures than them; we could control and have whatever we want. They,” he said pointing down at the dead cop, “is our food source, nothing more, nothing less. He is the cattle we roundup and feed upon, like they do. It is all for our taking, for feeding.”

  “You are insane; we are not superior to them. We are just people as they are, we are Humans.”

  “Us humans, you don’t have a heart beat and you call yourself a human? You feed upon them as I do and yes we are superior.” He screamed and rushed to my side slapping my right cheek and my head abruptly turned left. “You are the insane one here.”

  “Okay,” I said as I spit a bit of blood to the forest floor, “So how are you going to get Alex, now that he is in a cage.”

  “Don’t worry it is all part of the plan.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  The night was chilly and the wind drove the cold to my body as needles in to my skin. Max was passing from left to right his hand under his chin and talking to himself. I stayed calm and waited. He had a decision to make and the time was running out. Since I have encountered these men, these lying bastards, I have found myself in this dire situation and I know the only help I would get was from Jeremy, yet meeting him now would be difficult. I let myself fall unto a state of numbness since I knew it was my fault. Every decision I had made so far had been wrong. First going back to the hotel to find out what had happened, then trusting an almost immortal Max, all wrong from the start.

  “Figured it out yet?”

  “Shut up, don’t you see I am thinking?”

  “You are babbling that is all you are doing.”

  “You have any ideas?”

  “Idea for what; for you to kill me?”

  “No, to get Alex, maybe he would spare you.”

  “Let him rot, come with me”

  “I said shut the fuck up.”

  “Didn’t you just ask me for an idea?”

  “Well do you?” he asked as I stayed silent and waited for the desperation to stick to him like glue. It did not take long till he was asking again.

  “Do, you?”

  I stayed silent.

  “Tell me you have an idea to get Alex back” he said running to my side and kneeling. I thrust my head back and hit his nose with my forehead, a head-butt. He screams and falls backwards as I struggle to move forward to the cop’s corpse and fumbled with the keys he had on his belt. Alex came through fast and ran towards me. Grabbing a handful of my hair, He yanked.

  “You fucking bitch I told Alex we should have killed you so long ago back there in the car.” He said

  “Why didn’t you?”

  “We saw you leave the farm after you consumed him, and we fallow from afar, told Alex that you were so close that we could run you over and keep our way, but he said he needed to make you hurt.”

  “Make me hurt?”

  “Yes that is what he said, why?”

  “There is only one way to hurt me and you need to get me out of these handcuffs right now.” I said sure of what was Alex’s plan.

  “Why should I?”

  “Because if you don’t I will not keep holding back?”

  “Pfft, what can you do? You are tied with those useless arms inside the handcuffs.”

  “Don’t, just don’t. I am pleading you to let me go so you won’t get hurt.”

  He laughs hard and assured he would be safe. Wrong answer, came the words to my mind. I clenched my fist and pulled the handcuffs away, breaking the chain in the middle as if they were nothing but made of plastic. He moves back as I glared at him, moving forward. He did as the cop did, moved his body backwards for every step I took and rustling the leaves on the floor. He stops at a tree trunk barely covering his body and I threw a punch that tore half the bark away.

  “Now sit!” I snarled and the fear in his face was real, the wide eyes, the quivering of his lower lip, the slow decent to the ground as my last word hit his ears.

  “But, how?” he asked

  “You know nothing of me.”

  As I rose from my dire state, a hostage to now an intimidator and a snarling beast that was only looking for her interest. I knew Max did not have a chance he is disturbed, crazy even. He sat quivering on the floor.

  “What happened in Canyon Diablo was nothing compare to what I would do to you or Alex, if what I am thinking is what you are trying to do.”

  I grabbed the collar of his shirt and drew him near me, his face a mere scared version of the one before, of what it once was a happy, smiling kid now but a reflection of the monster he really is.

  “You don’t know a thing.” I said to him now wondering what their plan really was, I might have an idea. I open my mouth and was ready to consume his sorry ass when from the back strobes of blue and red filled the area in the distance and I could see the lights of flashlights moving about and I knew it was time to go. I looked back at Max still scared.

  “Time to go and if you dare anything I will end your supposed immortal life. Understand?” He just nodded rapidly like a bubblehead figure on a bumpy road. I ran to the backpack and picked it up and ran out the clearing pushing Max as I speed of. At the edge I looked back and saw the corpse of the cop that Max had consumed and I had to turn around. Kneeling at his corpse I looked into his eyes still closed and around its sockets were the same black the others had, only not so profoundly viewable. I put my hands inside his mouth and pull them on opposite direction, ripping his head from the jaw up and afterwards putting my hand inside and squashing what was left of its brain. He was not coming back. I stood as soon as the first member of the backup showed and before the lights could hit me I ran, I ran to where I had left Max thinking he had run away, but he was still at the edge waiting in the floor rocking back and forth like a scared boy. He looked up at me and said no words he just stood and ran by my side. We ran for a while with no actual end line, we ran south deeper in the forest then west towards the fertilizer plant we left a couple of hours back. Then I decided to return a
nd moved south again. We ran till we did not see the lights no more. Only the black night was behind us and the only lights the small twinkling of the stars in the sky, and the silvery reflection of the moon. We stopped panting. I was grabbing a tree Max was bending from his knees.

  “I think we are safe for now.”

  “Miss Sara listen you cannot expect me to help you not after what I did.”

  “Shut up.”

  “That wasn’t me, I should explain…”

  “Explain later you shit.”

  I did not wanted him to talk to me I told him to sit and made him change his cloths while I grabbed a pair of jeans and broke a leg off twisting it and ripping threads of its hard fabric and making a small rope.

  “Turn around put your hands behind your back” I said as he finished dressing and cleaning the blood from his face and he did as told and I bound his hands so he could not do anything. I did not know if he had my strength and could easily break them loose, but I did not want to take any chances. I sat behind him my back to his bound hands pushing a little too, making him move forward if he tried anything any movement I would know. There in the night my back to him his warm body and the thumbing of his heart racing I again put my hand to my chest, nothing. I wondered how is his heart beating while mines had always stayed the same, no thumbing in my chest my lungs functions why didn’t my heart? Thirty-three years of this, I was tired of it. Jeremy and Marino, two people close to me and hunters of the monster I am. I am weary. I did not want this life anymore. I wanted to drift meet new people without having to look back over my shoulder hoping they were not close, so I could actually make a friend. Maybe that is why I fell for Max’s charade at first. The urge to have a friend, someone to speak to and count on days I was down, depressed. I know that being too much around people would wake the hunger inside me grow and I could turn like Alex did, go on a rampage and consume everyone around, which is why I stay always in the woods cause of the solitude of them. I’m not saying I have no friends, I do, but many are in far off places. People I have found during my travels, good people. I remember Alice, a women I met in South Dakota, Javier a man in New Mexico, also all the way up in Canada, Alfonse Stevens. He was a character, he could make me laugh all the time, with his French accent he would say “Dear Sara Garber a meal is not a meal without bacon and you certainly look like bacon.” I chuckled to the memory of him. Huge body, round, like a big library globe of the earth, white like the snow and glasses so thick you could not break them if you threw them from the empire state building. I missed each and every one and only a few of them new my secret. Then I remembered the little girl that I had to protect in Georgia from a child molester, a real evil man. He had a two story house with a hidden room. The room was behind a bookcase the swings on hidden hinges. He had abducted the girl in front of my eyes and I fallowed him, not fallowed; hunted him. After seeing what I had to see. I grabbed my backpack went to the back setting it down as I kicked the door open and ran inside, he was about to attacked her, I just broke his neck. I was hungry that time, so hungry I bent down ripping his chest open with my hands going straight to his intestines and eating, forgetting the girl behind me and the dead body. She did not scream. After I finished, I stood and the heard her shuffling her feet, as I turned around she just grabs my hand and leads me out the back where I had left the back pack. She points at it and I only nodded, she picked it up, not without looking back with a smile on her face. I was perplexed; later in the night she just smiled at me as she cleaned the blood of my hands and only two words came from her mouth ‘thank you’ that was it. I left her in front of a police station with a note and where they can find the body of her predator. I remember looking back my hands to the straps of the backpack I had that time and she waving at me when a cop bend down and said something and she skipped inside a really weird sight, but I knew she would be safe.